I think you must be confusing the Lite with the Mini. The JBL is the same device as the Regular jetBook in terms of the hardware with the exception of the components removed that were for the audio and to support charging an internal battery pack.

I knew about the battery 'switch' but does the JetBook Lite also drop the MP3 playing capability ?

For all of the talk on this website a couple of years ago about the ability to listen to music while you read, I've never heard of a single eBook reader that has a good reputation for playing music.

First I'd say that the idea of listening to music while reading doesn't appeal to me, although an argument might be made for drowning out worse distractions I suppose. When I got my Aluratek Libre Pro I looked at the ability to play music as a bit of a bonus since I don't have a portable MP3 player, could never talk myself into a cheap one thinking you'd get what you paid for. But using an eReader to kill time somewhere, on a trip or in a hospital waiting room, I thought it might be nice to be able to switch from reading to music. All that said, I didn't find the sound quality on the Libre Pro to be all that bad, although I never even bothered trying out the earbuds that came with it and that change alone to better ones may have improved sound quality somewhat. I couldn't say if a $100 plus Ipod or something would sound better, having never tried one, but I found the sound quality on the eReader to be better than I expected.

The sound quality is not bad, especially since most electronic devices use the same type of decoding or hardware decoder.
The jetbook has a somewhat higher noise ratio than high quality devices, and a much less flexible user interface and equalizer (it has none).

As far as music goes, I personally love Techno Trance. Especially the music remixed by Kyau and Albert! This kind of music makes use of continuous repetitious beats, rhythms and melodies. And on the surface the music is not bad. But once you really study it, it's composition is fabulous, in such a way that you can always hear something new every time you listen to it.

When I start reading, sometimes I'd add some of their songs on the background, as in "level 1 listening mode" I do not pay special attention to the music, and it's playing very softly in the background. The music then links in my mind to the stories I read!
Ofcourse,if I want to enjoy a song, and listen to it, to learn from it, I will not read, and listen more intently to it!

Although I like the idea of playing back music on the readers, most of the time I take my MP3 player with me, as the reader does not have sufficient battery to last very long.
Usually my jetbook lasts a good 12 hours in reading mode,but between 4 to 6 hours with MP3 playback. happens to be that my MP3 player and jetbook run out of juice around the same time!
So great entertainment doing both! Though I never read more than 4 hours in a row anymore.

Usually my jetbook lasts a good 12 hours in reading mode,but between 4 to 6 hours with MP3 playback. happens to be that my MP3 player and jetbook run out of juice around the same time!
So great entertainment doing both! Though I never read more than 4 hours in a row anymore.

I haven't taken the time to actually verify exactly but they claim my Libre will last for 24 hours of 'continuous use' reading. I've more been using it for brief periods on and off since I got it in January so that's hard to judge. They also claimed it would last 2 weeks sitting on standby and that's easier to tell. With very light use on a full charge I got 21 days on standby so it seems they aren't exaggerating the battery life. Interesting to note how much faster they eat power playing music though.

I saw something the other day that made me wonder.. I'd assumed that audio books would be just a sound file and play and display the way a music file does but this article's wording made me wonder if they don't display the text as well as 'playing' the book at the same time. Is this the case ?

No, the audio books are just spoken books by a voice actor, with occasional background music. If they do display the text they'd have to be categorized as a movie file, as so far there is not yet a codec out there that streams audio and text together.
You could do this, by creating a movie file with only audio,and a null driver for video, while using subtitles though. To save space the subtitles would have to be an external subtitle file.

There's also another option, probably found on the jetbook color soon, is TTS (Text to Speach), where the jetbook's CPU converts text to audio. It's not as good as a pre-read book, and consumes considerably more battery, as well as there'll be no background music; but it would allow the audibly reading of a text file or book, so you won't need large files for storing video or audio data.

Unfortunately the Jetbook COlor is not as far yet to have this TTS work properly (it works by reading highlighted text though..; pretty hard to mark a whole book for reading)

No, the audio books are just spoken books by a voice actor, with occasional background music.

That's what I expected really. Are they usually MP3 files or named something else? If so do they display the same screen you get when playing music ?

Quote:

There's also another option, probably found on the jetbook color soon, is TTS (Text to Speach)

Yes, I've used those utilities quite a bit in the past. It's always amusing what they do with the pronunciation of some words, plus it has no way to judge the form of a word being used...
Is Read 'Red' or 'Reed' ? English is a tough language to learn or to deal with using electronic readers or translators.

No, the audio books are just spoken books by a voice actor, with occasional background music. If they do display the text they'd have to be categorized as a movie file, as so far there is not yet a codec out there that streams audio and text together.
You could do this, by creating a movie file with only audio,and a null driver for video, while using subtitles though. To save space the subtitles would have to be an external subtitle file.

Actually AAX is a format available for audible books and it is not a movie file, However it will display still pictures synced to the text that is being read. It is perfect for children's books and is supported by audible reading programs. ePub 3 is also targeted at this capability although without readers to support the format it is hard to see exactly how it will work. You can download AZARDI reader for a pc and get some idea from its demo book.

Seems like itunes also supports aax files,the extended version of .aa files!
I suppose they are aac files (like MP3 files) with added screens. Technically you could do the same with MP4 or MKV files on a very low motion codec video,and subtitles if you want to read the text.

I've been hammering away at my JBL for a few years now (although I recently also bought a Sony 300 on Ebay, which is also excellent - who needs Pearl or wifi?).

Considering how many 000's of times I've bashed the JBL's buttons and thrown it around in my gym-bag on the crummy old London buses, it has proved remarkably resilient. Perhaps the 'back' button is a little resistant now. The screen is 99% unscratched.

Not without its flaws and glitches, but one of the best gadgets I've ever bought, in my opinion. I was talking to a Kindle3 guy on the bus the other day... he told me that its screen froze after hardly a week - took it back to John Lewis for a replacement

Hmm... could an eReader that has sound and that can read HTML or .epub or .rtf, for
that matter, have its reader software call the audio features? Sure, but I don't know
if any do.

Luck;
Ken

This is an ePub 3 feature but not ePub 2. In ePub 2 you can start TTS and have it automatically change pages as it reads on some readers but not the other way around. You have to turn TTS on and off manually.

I've been hammering away at my JBL for a few years now.
Considering how many 000's of times I've bashed the JBL's buttons and thrown it around in my gym-bag on the crummy old London buses, it has proved remarkably resilient. Richard

That's good to know. Cheap Buttons can knock years off of the usefullness of some things. I don't know how many mice I've tossed after a few months when the buttons failed long before anything else did. My current Logitech is probably 6 years old now and still going. All the silver 'paint' is long worn off of the buttons but they still work and I beat it up pretty good playing games. B)